Tallinn, Estonia - 22 Aug 2000 What we did and where we went in Tallinn
	We were docked by 8am and set off after breakfast. Another sunny day but the clouds crept over later on. It was 70°F/21°C at noon. No other cruise ships around here:) The first mention of a settlement on the site of Tallinn dates from 1154. In 1219 Waldemar II of Denmark established a fortress on the site. The town joined the Hanseatic League in 1285 and soon attained considerable commercial importance. In 1346 Tallinn was sold by Denmark to the Teutonic Knights. It was aquired by Sweden in 1561. Sweden ruled Estonia until 1721, when it was ceded to Russia by the Peace of Nystadt, and the Russian Tsar Peter the Great, then emperor (1721-1725), restored the former privileges of the nobility. Serfdom was abolished in Estonia, by the Russian Tsar Alexander I between 1816 and 1819. After the middle of the century Estonian national consciousness was aroused and co-operative and educational movements sprang up after the revolution that took place in Russia in 1905, after the Russo-Japanese War. The Russian Revolution brought self-government to the Estonians, and on February 24, 1918, an independent republic was proclaimed. After a war against invading Bolsheviks, a peace treaty was signed at Tartu between Russia and Estonia on February 2. 1920, and all Russian claims to sovereignty over Estonia were dropped. Estonia became a member of the League of Nations. In June 1940, in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Soviet forces occupied Estonia and the other Baltic republics of Latvia and Lithuania. Elections were organised, in which only Soviet-supported candidates were permitted to run. On August 6, 1940, Estonia became a republic of the USSR. When Germany attacked the USSR in June 1942, Estonia was occupied by German troops. In September 1944, when the Germans retreated from the country and the Soviet army returned, more than 60,000 Estonians fled to Sweden and Germany. During the next 45 years most countries granted at least de facto recognition to Soviet Estonia, but the United States never fully accepted Estonia's incorporation into the USSR. Together with Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia was among the first Soviet republics to move towards independence in the late 1980s, in defiance of the central government. After Communist rule collapsed in the USSR in 1991, the Soviet government formally recognised the independence of the Baltic republics on September 6 of that year, and all three were admitted to the United Nations later that month. The eastern border has remained a matter of dispute between Estonia and Russia. Some 5% of Estonian territory was transferred to the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic by the Soviet government in 1945 and Estonian officials seek its return. We were required to be back onboard by 4.15pm and we departed at 5pm, the pilot staying for just ½ hour until we were outside the breakwater. 590 NM to Travemünde.
	What we did and where we went in Tallinn My photo album of Tallinn

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